A Second Chance
by WritersBlockDillema
Summary: Takes place right at the end of The Last of Us. Told from Ellie's perspective and how she adjusts to her new life in Tommy's camp in Jackson, and how she will try to have a "normal" life.
1. Chapter 1

"I swear." I could see the lie on Joel's face as he said the words. You don't go through what we'd been through and not know exactly what the other was thinking. A moment passed as I considered how to respond.

"Okay." I finally said.

There had to be a reason for Joel to lie to me. After all this time together... he would never do anything to hurt me, he must be protecting me from something. But what? I decided not to pry it from him. One day, if it really mattered, he'd tell me.

We continued marching to Tommy's. We arrived at the main gate, the same place we were at just last Fall. Was that really only a few months ago? Everything before this past Winter felt like it happened a million years ago...

We were greeted by a guard in a watchtower, his rifle pointed at Joel's head, "What the hell do you want?"

"We're lookin' for Tommy. He's my younger brother." Joel said.

The guard looked only a couple years older than me. He looked at Joel warily, "What's your name?"

"Joel."

The guard started talking into his walkie. I could barely hear what he was saying, but a moment later he climbed down and opened the gate to let us in. Joel talked to the guard for a couple minutes while we waited for Tommy to come. I didn't pay much attention, and stared at the ground, lost in thought. Tommy arrived and greeted us, "Well I'll be damned. Its nice to see you again brother." Tommy gave Joel a hug, to which Joel reciprocated.

"Oh and don't think I forgot about you." he said to me, rubbing the top of my head, messing up my hair.

"Hi." I said.

Tommy turned to Joel, "Well I'm glad you decided to take me up on my offer. Just like I said, we have room for you both. Matter of fact, we have room for you two and then some."

"Why's that?" Joel asked.

"Well some folks have been leaving lately, say we "ask too much of 'em". All we ask is that everyone pitch in a little bit, help keep the community's wheels turnin'. But anyways, we can discuss all that nonsense once you two are all set up. Let's get goin'."

We got into the heart of the town, people were walking everywhere. The center of the town had a huge park, full of bright green, freshly trimmed grass. There were benches all along the concrete paths leading through the park, each full of people talking about this or that. Along the outside street of the park were buildings, each with signs in front of them saying what they were. Movie theater, town hall, marketplace, kitchen, but most importantly, library. I gasped at the sight of it, a huge white building with huge windows in the front on both sides of a double door. "Holy shit! Is that whole place filled with books?" I asked Tommy.

"Well just about yeah. Any time we go out on a run we try and pick up any books or movies we can find. We gotta preserve all this stuff or else it'll just be gone. Like it never even happened."

Joel looked at me with a smile. I smiled back, feeling happiness in my stomach that I didn't think could return.

Tommy led Joel and me to a small two-story yellow house. The paint was peeling in some places, but as long as there was a roof over my head, I didn't really give a shit. We all walked through the fence gate and up the little path to the front door. Opening the door revealed a living room on the right which held all the natural amenities a living room should have, and on the left was the kitchen. Upstairs were three bedrooms, each had a dresser, a bed and that was it. "Maria has people getting some sheets and stuff ready for you guys, we took 'em off all the houses for the beds that were all occupied. The place has electricity, the T.V. works and all the lights too. There's even a DVD player in the living room and, if you want, you can borrow movies from the movie theater. Just don't take anything from the kid's section. we need those for when they have movie nights."

"Thank you, Tommy." Joel said.

"Thanks." I said.

As I laid down to sleep I thought to myself. I thought about how this place, here with Joel, could help me forget the awful things I'd seen. But mostly, I was just excited to dive into that library and read everything I could get my hands on.


	2. Chapter 2

I really love this story, and want to update it really frequently, so please enjoy!

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Life at Tommy's place was easy, especially compared to what we'd been dealing with the past few months. Things were going great, I was able to work at the stables during the day, while Joel would do carpentry work with Tommy. I would come home a couple hours before Joel and would usually stop at the kitchens to pick up food to cook for dinner. I never ate without Joel, I always waited until he got home before taking the food from the oven. While I waited for him, I would read the books I borrowed from the library, my favorite was this one called "The Hunger Games". I saw the movie with Joel and fell in love with the whole story. I read all three books in four days after work, once I even forgot to cook dinner and dove straight into one of the books.

All of this would have been perfect, letting me forget all about what we'd been through, if it wasn't for the nightmares. They would come in flashes, always the same thing. David's face looking at me with a huge smile on his face and saying, "You know you're special." Then his hand would touch mine and I would wake up. Covered in sweat, hair stuck to my forehead. One night Joel must've been awake when I had a nightmare because when I awoke shouting he came running into my room. He ran to my bedside and sat down, taking me in his arms, "Shh baby girl it's ok. Shh.. what's the matter? What happened?"

I took a second to get myself together. I told Joel about my nightmares, told him about how I saw David's face almost every night. He listened to me, holding me in his arms, making me feel safe.

After I finished Joel just looked at me for a few seconds. "Ellie... I know you've been through a lot. I'll never be able to understand exactly what you've been through, but I can tell you it'll get better. You keep livin', keep goin'. Pretty soon none of that stuff is gonna mean anything to you."

"But how do I get over it Joel? I don't know if I can."

"Ellie. You're a helluva lot stronger than you think you are. You are the single strongest person I ever knew. You'll get through this by persevering."

The next day Joel made eggs and bacon for us. It felt like I was still asleep, it was so surreal to me that just a couple weeks ago I was trying to shoot a squirrel out of a tree for breakfast, now I had a whole feast. We ate and talked, avoiding the topic of last night. I said goodbye to Joel and departed down to the stables, looking forward to seeing Callus Jr. Work always went by fast, and today when I got home Joel was there sitting on the porch of our small yellow house. "Hey, what're you doing here? Don't you have work?"

"I was able to get off early, most of the construction is done for right now. Tommy wants to start training people to build houses, just so more of 'em know how to repair things and not all the work falls to me and him. But for today he said I can go home, and I had an idea."

Joel reached behind his back and pulled out a small box made of old, stained cardboard. I eyed the box and then looked at Joel who was smiling at me. "I went down to the marketplace this morning when I got off work, and found this." He held it out and pushed it towards me, "Well go 'head. Open it!"

I opened the box and removed, what looked like, underwear. "Uh thanks Joel, but I think I have enough underwear already."

Joel let out a deep, small chuckle. "It 'ain't underwear, its a bathing suit... You know? For swimming."

The pieces were starting to fit in my mind. "Wait, you mean you wanna teach me how to swim today?"

"Well why not? Tommy was telling me about this huge pond, not that far from here that we could go to."

A smile crept across my face. "I'd love to." I put my arms around his neck, and he put one of his around my back.

We got to the pond about half an hour later, and each changed into our suits. I looked at Joel's stomach, saw the scar from his stitches I gave him. I felt a lump in my throat. He was so close to dying... I put that thought out of my head quickly, and focused on the swimming.

I put my clothes in my bag, but left my knife outside of it, just in case. Joel got in the water first, slowly. "Woah jeez! That's cold." he said.

Once he was fully in I got to the edge of the water. My feet touched the water and I let out a shriek. "Holy shit that water is freezing!"

"I know don't worry, you get used to it pretty quick."

I walked, slowly, into the water until it was up to my neck. "Okay Joel, not goin' any deeper."

"Oh yes ya are." Joel replied. "Now just watch me and then try and do exactly as I do."

I watched Joel calmly swim through the water for a couple of minutes before I decided to try it. I copied his movements exactly but couldn't stay afloat. "Goddammit! Joel this isn't working!" He had to grab me to keep me from sinking.

"Now don't worry, no one knows how when they start. Now here, I'll hold you up, just stretch your arms out... There you go, you're gettin' it!"

Joel spent the next hour teaching me to swim, and by the end I was actually pretty good. "Hey, baby girl it's starting to get dark, we gotta head back."

"Aw really?" I looked and noticed how much darker it had gotten. It would almost be full dark by the time we got back. "Aw okay. Let's get goin'."

We changed back into our clothes, and headed back. As we were walking I heard a twig break behind us. "Joel wait."

We stopped in our tracks, listening. Nothing.

"Ellie I don't hear anythin'."

I listened for another second, "I guess you're right... I thought a twig broke or something..."

We got back to the gate just before curfew, that night I dreamt of swimming deep down into the pond, Joel at my side diving with me.


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay, sorry that this chapter was so far delayed compared to the other two. I was trying to think of how I wanted to make the story more exciting and I think I made about four separate versions of this chapter before I finally decided on something I thought was good. Enjoy!**

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The hay on the floor of the barn was dry, and crunched under my feet as I walked. I was petting Callus Jr. and feeding him some oats from my hand, just about to end my shift at the stables. Joel would be working late tonight, training more people with Tommy. I wished he could get off early again, take me swimming...

I left the stables and decided I to stop at the kitchens now, rather than later to get something to cook for dinner tonight. It took about 15 minutes to get to the town center from the stables. There was a long line outside of the kitchen, and it seemed a lot of other people would rather get their food right after work too. I should've figured there'd be a line, people always think they can be the earliest ones here, try and get the best cuts of meat. I couldn't have been more than thirty feet from the kitchen, when I was suddenly thrown off my feet and onto my back, the kitchen instantly caught in a blaze of fire.

I felt all of the air in my lungs fly out of my body right on impact. I tried to breath again and to sit up. My ears were ringing loudly, and I couldn't hear anything that was happening around me. Slowly, I managed to sit myself up and my eyes focused again. I looked around and saw people running. Over the ringing I heard a faint popping noise coming from near the explosion. Men with large rifles were shooting survivors down as they tried to get away from the carnage of the bomb. Suddenly I realized that I was in their path and needed to move, fast. I forced myself to stand, causing every muscle in my body to ache as I did. I moved slowly and made my way to a bench away from the shooters, I crouched behind it and took cover from their fire. I needed to move, get to the house and all of the gear Joel and I had.

Suddenly someone grabbed me from behind, pulling me up by the ponytail, "Let go of me you asshole!" I yelled.

"Get ready to die you little bitch!"

I shut my eyes, then dropped to the ground. I pushed myself up with my hands and opened my eyes. Joel, Tommy and a group of others were there, guns in hand. Joel ran to me and picked me up. "Tommy! I gotta get her outta here!"

Joel was running before Tommy could reply. We got to the house quickly, and Joel set me down on the couch. "Jesus Joel... My leg..."

I looked down and saw a shard of metal protruding out from my left leg. "Okay. Okay just hold on baby girl I'll take care of it, just wait a second."

Joel quickly went into the kitchen and was back in moments with rags and bottles of alcohol. "Okay now Ellie this is gonna hurt but its the only way to fix you up okay?"

I bit down hard and nodded my head. Joel rested one hand on my leg, the other on the metal lodged inside. He looked up at my face, "Ready?"

I nodded again. As soon as Joel pulled currents of pain ran through my body. I felt hot tears stream down my face and I screamed louder than I ever had in my life. Joel had just finished removing the metal as everything went black.

When I woke up I felt groggy and my mouth felt like it had been open for hours. I was still on the couch and there was a blanket on top of my, a pillow under my head. "Ugh..."

Joel came from nowhere to my side. "Hey baby girl." He said quietly, brushing hair out of my face. "How do ya feel?"

"Like someone just tried to fucking blow me into pieces. Joel what the fu-"

"Shh-shh. Ellie, I need you to stay quiet. They're all over town. They haven't made it to this area yet, but it's only a matter of time."

"Wait what? Who?" I asked.

"The explosion was just a decoy to distract us all."

"Yeah I'd say I'm pretty distracted all right."

"I talked to Tommy a little after I finished patching you up, he said that a whole bunch of 'em punched through the gate and stormed the place. He tried to stop 'em with some of our guys but..."

"Is he okay?"

Joel bit his lower lip and shook his head. "No. No he's gone. He was trapped in a house and told me he had to call Maria... say goodbye."

"Joel I'm... I'm sorry."

"Yeah... Me too. We gotta get out of here. I stitched your leg up it's gonna be sore as hell for a couple days, but you should be okay."

"How are we getting out of here? Didn't Tommy say they came in through the main gate?"

"Tommy told me that there's a side way in that only he and Maria knew about. We'll use that and then we'll just have to figure things out from there I s'pose."

I lifted the blanket off my body and started to stand up. My leg severely protested but I kept pushing and stood up in front of Joel. I felt like I could hardly stand, but I forced myself not to sit back down. I looked Joel and saw hurt in his eyes. I put my arms around his waist and pulled him tightly towards me. We stayed like that for a moment, saying goodbye to the lives we had built for ourselves in this place, and everything it gave us. When we released each other I turned and went to my room to prepare my supplies for whatever would come for us next.


	4. Chapter 4

**Oh my god I'm really sorry this took so long to publish. I wanted to make it longer than the other chapters and make it twisty because I know that most of these are kind of the same and I wanted mine to be kind of different at least. Personally I really like this chapter, I hope you all do to. Thanks also to everyone who writes reviews, I really think about them when I'm writing and I really appreciate them all. Thank you!**

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I marched up the stairs to my room, feeling every ache in my body as I moved. I opened the door to my room and entered for the last time. I opened my closet where I'd put my bow, arrows and backpack. I put on my bag and put my bow and arrows on my back with it. I looked at myself in the mirror above my dresser and saw myself for the first time since this morning. My hair was a matted mess of tangles and dirt, making me look like some feral animal. I started to run my fingers through it to tame the mess, but as soon as I started I stopped. Everything suddenly felt like it had built up in my head, and the pressure was too much on me. I pressed my hands against my skull, trying to soothe the aching in my mind. I don't know what I was expecting would happen... Joel and me would be able to to live happily? Have a life like people used to, before they were all dying or going crazy? No. Of course not. In this world no one gets to live happily, the monsters rule and everyone else has to survive around them.

I took a final look at my room from my doorway and felt drawn to my books on my shelf. If I left them here who knows what would happen to them. I decided that my bag was big enough, they wouldn't take up that much room anyways. I put them in my bag, these assholes might've taken the life I made here, but they wouldn't get these.

I went downstairs to Joel, who was all packed and ready to leave."Got everything?" he asked me.

"Yeah I guess so."

We walked out through the front door, passing through the gates that once offered a new start, now into darkness. No one else was on our street, I didn't even hear any shooting anymore. The street lights were all off, they must've gotten to the power plant already. I didn't know where this hidden exit was, so I followed Joel by his side closely. The night air was warm and it felt heavy, like there was going to be rain at any moment. Suddenly, Joel put his arm out in front of me, forcing me to stop in my tracks. "Wait. Get down."

We crouched behind a bush next to the sidewalk and Joel pointed to two men walking towards our direction with guns in their hands. "I'll take care of 'em, nice and quiet, don't wanna attract any unneeded attention." Joel whispered.

Joel opened his bag and removed an empty bottle from inside, throwing it far behind the two men. The two men turned around to the noise of the bottle, aiming their weapons. Once they were fully around I readied my bow, pulled back an arrow and aimed down at one of them. "Ellie-"

I released my arrow, sending the man on the right falling forward onto the ground, as the second was turning around to look back I notched my second arrow and fired, the arrow driving into his chest.

Joel turned and looked at me, "Ellie, I told you I was gonna take care of 'em."

"I got it Joel don't worry. These assholes ruined everything, they deserve to die."

"I just... Just gimme a head's up next time you decide to go all gung-ho again okay?"

We walked to the bodies and I took my arrows back, Joel took the ammo they had in their bags, which wasn't very much.

We kept going for half an hour, walking on the road alone, there wasn't a single person around. Had the bandits killed everyone? "We should be gettin' pretty close now."

"Psst. Joel! Look!" I whispered, pointing to a group of men standing in front of, what looked like, a shed.

"Dammit. Looks to be about ten men there at least."

"What are we gonna do?"

"We gotta get through that door. the shed leads to an underground exit that should take us just outside the fence." Joel was silent for a few seconds, looking forward at the men guarding our escape. "Okay, here's what we're gonna have to do, Ellie, you're going to stay over here on this side of 'em. I am gonna go cross over and get to the opposite side. We'll flank 'em but make sure you keep quiet. Only use your bow, okay?"

I nodded my head.

"Good. We'll be alright, then we can get outta here."

Joel put a hand on my head and pulled me in towards him for a hug. I hugged him back, and when we released he turned around and silently left to get into position. The men were all talking to each other, with their attention focused on the conversation, I was able to sneak over to my position with my bow ready. I was crouched behind a dumpster and looking at them, waiting for Joel to make the first move. After all, it was his plan, and I didn't want to fuck it up by acting too hastily.

Seconds passed when I heard a bottle shatter in the distance, attracting the men's attention towards Joel. They started to mutter something when I raised my bow, aimed and fired upon them. They were taken completely off-guard, and didn't know how to react at first, scrambling to try and find cover. I was able to shoot down two of them quietly, and Joel had taken down at least one, in the darkness it was hard to tell. I stood now, trying to get a better view of them all. I looked and saw two of the men facing my direction, I quickly released my arrow sending one down to the ground, the other yelled out, "She's over here! C'mon!"

Suddenly bullets were flying towards me, forcing me to retreat to my crouching position once more. I listened to the gunshots continue. If I poke my head out then they're gonna shoot it straight off, but if I don't do anything they're gonna come over here and just grab me. "Hey there's one over here too!"

They must've spotted Joel. The bullets that were hitting the dumpster ceased, and I peered over the dumpster just enough to see that a few of the bandits were just on the other side. "Oh shit!"

I raised my bow and shot one, but the other two were on me before I could load another arrow into my string. "Ah get off me you asshole!"

"Haha not so fast ya little bitch!"

I reached down into my pocket and took out my knife, stabbing the person holding me in his upper thigh, causing him to scream loudly into the side of my face. He loosened his grip on me, giving me the chance to spin around and stab him in the neck. His hands quickly went to stop the blood, and I turned around to get free, only to be struck by the other bandit. The force of it sent me to the ground and he went on top of me, wrapping his cold, rough hands around my throat. I started to panic, I forgot the knife was in my hands. I brought my knee up into his chest, knocking the air out of his lungs, but he didn't release. With my knife in my left hand I gripped the handle hard and shoved the blade deep into his stomach over and over until he finally released me.

I quickly pushed his heavy body off of me, leaving him lying next to me, bleeding out on the cold pavement. Using my legs, I pushed myself away from the two men and took in air as though it was the first time it had entered my lungs. My throat was raw and sore, making my breathing feel raspy. I had only just noticed that the shooting had stopped, but Joel hadn't come over to me yet. I slowly made myself stand and went to where he said he'd be. "J- Joel!" When I tried to talk the words would barely come out, and when they did they didn't sound like my own.

I found Joel behind a bush, in the dirt holding his leg. "Holy shit." I rushed to him and crohced down to the ground next to him.

"Joel! Are you alright?" I asked, as loudly as my throat would allow.

Joel looked at me, "Ugh yeah I'm fine, I think one of them bullets hit me in the leg though. Are you okay? Were you hurt?"

"I'm fine. Let me see your leg." Joel moved his hands and I looked down, shining my flashlight at his legs. The bottom of Joel's left leg was covered in fresh, red blood. I could see the bullet wound just between his knee and ankle. "Do you think you can walk?" I asked.

"Yeah, I think so." Joel grunted as he began to stand up.

I kept my arm around his back, offering him support just in case he fell. He was able to stand on his own, and hardly showed pain on his face. "Okay, lets get going, the sun's gonna be up soon and I wanna be far from here when it comes up. I don't want anybody seein' us."

"But Joel there's a friggin' bullet in your leg!"

"I know I can take it out and patch myself up when we get outta here don't worry about it."

Joel limped to the door, and I went to the dumpster to pick up my bow that I'd dropped. A hand grabbed my ankle, it was the bandit I stabbed in the chest. "Joel!"

"You fuckin' bitch!"

I kicked off his hand, Joel limped over and pointed his gun at the man's head. "Why the fuck did you come here? You ruined everything!" I yelled.

"We wanted to take this place over," he said, between his chuckling. "And it looks like we did a pretty fuckin' great job too!"

"Too bad you won't be able to enjoy it." Joel said, cocking back his revolver.

"It's a shame too. It was such a fucking great plan! We thought this shit out for months, no one saw it comin'."

"Joel wait." I said, looking down at the bandit. "What was your plan? I wanna know."

"You know how people have been leaving this shithole? Well they all came running straight to us! They all saw what Tommy had, the biggest house, the best looking wife. They all wanted a part of that. Tommy never has to work, but they do? They were all jealous. We wanted to use that power plant. So we came up with a plan. They gave us all the information, where to hit with our bombs to cause the biggest distraction, where there would be the heaviest amounts of guards. Not to mention this convenient little back door that was practically a 'welcome' mat."

"So you sick fucks killed my brother so you could have what he has? You're all fucking crazy! He does more for this town than anybody else does! Him and Maria are the reason it even exists!"

"Well maybe, but it's too late now. He's gonna be killed in front of everyone as soon as the sun comes up. We're gonna show whoever's left in this town that we're in charge now, and what'll happen to them if they don't do what we tell them to."

"Wait a minute. Tommy's... alive?"

"Not for a whole lot longer cowboy! He's gonna be ripped to shreds by the time that we're-" Joel shot his gun.

Joel looked up at me, I looked at him. "C'mon. Lets get goin'." He started back towards the door that lead outside of Jackson.

"Wait what? Aren't we going to get Tommy?"  
Joel's back was to me, "Ellie you heard what he said. He's gotta be surrounded by men right now, if he even really is still alive. We don't know if he was lying or if they just already killed Tommy."

"Joel. Look at me." He turned and face me. "Tommy is your brother. I know you want to protect me, but we need to find Tommy. If he's not dead we can't just leave him behind. He's family."

Joel looked at me for a moment, silent. "I can't risk it. I can't protect you, my leg is too bad."

"Then I'll go. I can be quick and quiet and-"

"No. Absolutely not. I will not lose you again. Especially not a slim hope that Tommy might still be alive."

"Joel. This time its not up to you. I've decided I'm going to do this for you. You've already lost your daughter, you aren't going to lose your brother too. Now I am going. But I want you to stay."

"Ellie you are not going anywhere!" Joel was yelling now, "Ellie please. I need you baby girl. You're all I got left."

I felt tears forming in my eyes, but I held them back. If I cried I wouldn't go, I would fall into his arms and we would leave and I would never know if I could have saved Tommy or not. "You are all I have Joel. But you're wrong. I'm not all you have left. Now I'm going to get your brother back. I want you to wait for me outside the fence, I'll be back by sunrise."

And before Joel could protest anymore, I was running back towards the center of town in darkness.


	5. Chapter 5

**I've been working on this chapter for a while, but I just finished it tonight. I just want to give a small warning that it gets kind of intense at the end but I mean heck you all played the last of us obviously you know what sort of stuff to expect. Okay thats all. Enjoy!**

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I kept running until I could not push myself any further, and that was when I couldn't bear the pain in my leg for another second. The streets were still pitch black, if there was anyone around, they wouldn't see me. I sat down on the step from the road to the sidewalk and tried to catch my breath, massaging my leg. It felt hot and I could feel the throbbing coming from where Joel had pulled the shrapnel out. _What are you doing Ellie?_ I thought to myself. _You know this is insane right?_ I did know it was insane, but I didn't care. Tommy was Joel's last family. His last real family. I wouldn't be able to live if I just let Joel leave Tommy to die so that I wouldn't get hurt. "Okay Ellie, just calm down. Deep breaths," I said, aloud, "Just go find Tommy, take him back to Joel, then get the hell out of here. It's easy as 1,2,3..."

I stood and resumed my walk to the town center, listening closely for anyone, or anything. I wasn't very close to the center yet, but I could see the bright orange of the flames from where I was, the fires must have spread. I hope everyone was able to make it out before their houses were burned...

The hunter had said that Tommy was going to be executed at the town center, I was hoping they were keeping him somewhere near there. Hopefully he wasn't to closely guarded. I would like to be out of here as soon as possible, and sunrise wasn't that far off.

Silhouettes appeared, blocking some of the orange light. "Shit!"

I positioned myself lower to the ground and moved towards the right side of the sidewalk, closer to the houses. I could hear some people shuffling inside, afraid to come out, face the destruction these foreigners had brought to their sanctuary. I don't blame them. Hardly any of them even knew how to hold a gun, only those who worked on guard duty were trained with the weapons. Their attackers were, at least mildly, trained on how to fight.

I decided to cut through the backyards of the homes to keep myself hidden. I walked through the yards when I heard a voice from behind me. In an instant I had my bow in my hands, arrow notched and ready to go. I could not see anyone in the darkness, "Who's there!" I yelled.

A figure stepped out, I couldn't tell if it was a woman or a man in this light. "Ellie? It's me, Margaret!"

I lowered my bow. Margaret was one of the others who worked in the stables with me. I hardly knew her or even anything about her, she and I rarely spoke, but she was always smiling. I moved closer to her, I could see the outline of her face, "What's wrong? Stay inside they're still out here!" I whispered.

"Oh Ellie," she said, between sobs. "It's my grandson, Thorne. He was hurt, he was outside when the bombs went off, he was shot. Please! Please help him!"

I didn't know what she expected me to do. I had no medical knowledge besides a simple bandaging, but maybe there was something I could do. I wouldn't leave an innocent child to die without trying to help. "Okay. Take me to him."

She showed me through the house, the back door led into the kitchen, which proceeded to an open doorway leading to the living room. Thorne was lying on the couch, a candle was sitting on the coffee table next to him. It let off a small orange glow, casting dark shadows across the walls as the flames stuttered. I knelt next to the boy, his eyes were shut. I pulled back the blanket draped across his chest. The bullet had pierced his stomach, tearing open the skin, leaving a gaping hole in his flesh, revealing his organs. The sight was to much for me to bear. I quickly lowered the blood-soaked blanket. Something about seeing the damage on someone so small made it seem worse than anything else I had seen. Maybe it was merely the severity of the wound itself, or maybe it was knowing that this child wouldn't survive much longer.

I turned back to Margaret who was standing behind me, waiting for my final analysis. Apparently she could see from the grave look on my face. As soon as I had fully turned around she cupped her hands around her mouth, fresh tears pouring down her, already moist, cheeks. "Please just... Just get out of here..."

I did, leaving through the way I had come. I didn't know how to feel. I didn't weep, I hardly knew Thorne or Margaret. But the loss of such a young child like that... It suddenly made me feel very heavy. The motivation I had held for finding Tommy had waned, that motivation was my strength. Now I was just tired. So tired. I knew I couldn't stop going. Joel wouldn't stop going for me, I couldn't for him.

I continued moving through backyards, lost in thought about what I had just been a part of. It felt so surreal to me. Almost as though I had been called in to watch someone's death to act as a witness. But of what? Of its validity? To prove that a boy named Thorne did live and that there was at least a moment when he was more than just another dead body? It just felt like a speed bump in my journey, meant to throw me off track. And it did.

So caught up in my own mind, I almost lost track of where I was, but the orange intensity had unknowingly engulfed my presence. I creaked open a fence gate and could see that I was just a few streets away from the town center. The houses ended at this point, I needed to resume on the sidewalk once more. I didn't see anyone immediately in the area and opened the fence gate, slowly moving out from my position. I felt exposed, naked in the blinding light of the flames, not 50 feet away from me. I walked quickly across the street and moved towards the warmth. I heard shouting coming from somewhere nearby, and I perked my ears to listen.

I followed, what sounded like, a group of men shouting. I was led to my familiar workplace, the stables. I could hear the shouting originating from inside. Leaning against the closed barn door I listened to the men, "-then when you're dead we're gonna hang your body until there's nothing left but a skeleton! You're gonna be nothing but food for the birds!"

A muffled noise came from inside. "Oh what's that? Ya got something to say do ya! Well please allow me to take this thing off ya!"

Suddenly Ellie heard Tommy's voice, it sounded ragged, tired. "P-please. You can have me, but just please... Let Maria go."

I looked through a crack in the door and could see inside. There were at least 6 men, all armed to the teeth. In the back-right corner I could see Maria, her face was bloody, her hair had all been cut off. Her hands were tied behind her back, her head hung low. I couldn't see Tommy from this position. "You want us to let her go?" The man moved towards Maria, grabbed her face with his hands. She didn't persist, her eyes were closed. It looked as though she were already dead. "Now why would we let this pretty little thing go?"

A barely audible noise emanated from her slightly parted lips.

"Please... PLEASE!" I could hear the strain in Tommy's voice.

I wanted to move, act in some way, do something to help. But I was glued to where I stood. Me against 6 guys in a little barn._ I'm not Joel. I could never take out all of them._ "Hmm ya know what. I've changed my mind. Ever since we gave her that little hair cut, she isn't all that pretty anymore," Before I could make out what was happening, a gunshot went off. The bullet going into Maria's skull.

It felt like a million things happened in the span of only a few seconds. Maria's entire face had been obliterated by the bullet that ended her life. Tommy was screaming. The hunter who shot Maria moved to him, I heard something hit his face. The rest of the men all began to disperse through the back door.

"We'll be back to take you out by daybreak. I'll leave you to spend the rest of your life with the missus," He proceeded to leave through the back, following the others.

I stayed where I was, I realized I was holding my breath during the entire ordeal. I tried to let my breath out slowly, but it came out choppy and fast. I felt the tears moving down my face, fast and hard. I barely spoke to Maria, she rarely came over to the house, but she was still family. Looking at her now... I could barely tell she was the same person I met when I first came here.

I slowly opened the door, Tommy was in the corner, hands tied to the wooden pole behind him. His body had gone limp, he was crying loudly, his breathing raspy and choppy as mine had been. "T-Tommy," his head slowly met mine.

"Ellie? What the fuck are you doing here?"

"I'm here to help you," My voice had gotten quieter as I spoke, I looked back at Maria and felt ridiculous.

_I'm so helpful I came to help you bury your wife. _I thought. Tommy started to laugh. "Well Ellie! You're here to help me! That's great!" He was smiling widely now, his face sunken into hysteria. "That is just fucking great!" He was yelling.

"Tommy!" I said, trying to whisper. "There are still people out there you need to be quiet or else they-"

"Or else what? Hmm? They'll come in here and kill me?" He laughed again. "Well let 'em. There's nothing else for them to do to me now anyways. I'll be happier dead."

I slapped him in his face, getting some of his blood on my hand, staining it a bright red color. "You bastard. I know you miss Maria. I can't imagine how that feels, but you need to keep going. If you can't keep going for yourself, then do it for Joel. He has lost everyone. You are the last family he has Tommy," Joel's words suddenly came to my mind, "No matter what you find something to keep fighting for."

Tommy looked up at me, the hysteria drained from his face, his eyes placid and glossy. I could see his mind processing what I had said to him. "Okay," he said. "I'll go with you. But for Joel, only for Joel."

A breath of relief passed through my lips. I untied Tommy, he began to limp towards Maria's body, they must have broken one of his legs. Tears poured once more. He put his head to her forehead, what was left of it. "Goodbye sweetheart. I will always love you. I will never forget what we had." Then he whispered something to her I couldn't hear.

"Let's go," he said.

I handed Tommy my pistol, "I'll lead the way," I said.

With Tommy's limp and an army of hunters out there, I couldn't imagine what was waiting for us outside...


End file.
